Operation: Unknown Angel

by Margaret Kay

  “I know.”

  “They said gas leak. You’re really lucky you got out.” He eyed her curiously for a few seconds. She didn’t look relieved. “Where are you headed?”

  “The Anchor Point Lodge and the diner. I need to get something to eat and get a room. Then I guess I need to call my insurance company.” She paused and swiped at her cheek again. The tears wouldn’t stop. “I really have no idea what I’m going to do,” she admitted.

  “Get yourself dinner, check in, and call your insurance company. That’s probably all you can do tonight. You’re unhurt?”

  “Yeah, just shaken up.”

  “Let me escort you to the motel,” he said. “Just follow me.” Then he walked back to his police cruiser. He turned the lights on, and he pulled onto the road in front of her. He waited until she pulled out behind him. He drove at five mph below the posted limit with the lights on the entire way. Once in front of the motel’s office, he waved and then he backed out and left.

  Annaka wiped her tears one final time and pulled herself from the car. She got a room with a kitchenette. She drove around to her room. It was on the one floor attached building that ran away from the main lodge. One-fifteen was her room number. It was five rooms away from the end of the building on the side that faced the diner and Highway One. Behind this stretch of rooms, on the back, were ten more rooms. She opened the door and turned the lights on. It was clean, but just as outdated as the room she’d stayed in with Danny and his team on the second floor in the lodge building.

  There was a king-sized bed and a nightstand, a small table, two chairs near the counter that doubled as a desk and a kitchen workspace, a full-sized refrigerator, sink, and a two-burner stove with a microwave above it. She wasn’t sure how much food she’d really prepare here. She’d probably get most of her meals from the diner. There was a coffee pot, though. She’d get some good coffee and creamer from the store tomorrow. She made a mental shopping list. Besides food, she’d need personal care items, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant. Again, the enormity of all she lost hit her.

  “First, dinner,” she said out loud to herself. And a cup of tea. She wanted that cup of tea.

  She grabbed her wallet out of her purse and her room key, and she walked over to the diner. She placed a to go order with Sandy, one of the waitresses.

  “Are you okay, honey?” She asked.

  “No, not really,” Annaka replied. “I just checked into the motel.” She pointed across the parking lot. “My house blew up; gas leak the fire department said.”

  “Oh, honey, I’m sorry,” she said, wrapping her arms around Annaka. “That was where the fire department went? Your house?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  Sandy pointed at the first chair at the counter. “Sit, eat.”

  “No, I really just want to be alone. I have to call my insurance company yet.”

  “You can do that after you eat. Sit, honey. You shouldn’t be alone right now.” She guided her to the chair. Then she turned her head and yelled to the cooks through the open, pass-through window. “Make that meatloaf order dine-in and get me a bowl of chicken soup right away!” She turned back to Annaka. “Chicken soup cures everything.” She set the bowl in front of Annaka and then got her a cup of tea.

  Sandy made small talk with Annaka as she ate. Annaka’s spirits were lifted a bit when she left. She rushed back to the motel, unlocked the door, and went inside. She bumped the heat up a few degrees. She was chilled. Then she engaged the night lock. She pushed her wallet back into her purse and noticed a folded-up piece of paper she didn’t recall putting in it.

  She pulled it out and opened it as she took a seat on the bed. She recognized the handwriting. It was Remi’s. She had to reread the sloppily penned out message in purple ink twice to fully understand and accept what it said.

  Help! 2 men

  Holding my family at my house

  Made me submit green light on survey

  Being watched here

  Don’t trust anyone local

  Get your boyfriend & team

  Be careful

  She had not signed her name, but Annaka knew it was from Remi. She began to shake. Her eyes went to the room door. She stood and dragged the chair over to it. She pushed its back against the door, under the lock, its feet digging into the carpet. Then she got her phone and dialed Danny, again expecting to leave a message.

  “Cariño, I’m in the middle of something but are you okay?” He answered.

  “No, they have Remi and her family, made her change our report to give a green light on the seismic survey. Danny, I don’t think the explosion at my house was an accident.” Her heart pounded in her chest.

  “Hold on,” he said. She heard his voice muffled in the background. “Just fucking chill out. This is my girl, and she’s in trouble. You’re not the most important thing in my life right now, jefe,” he said.

  “What the fuck?” A voice she didn’t recognize asked. “Are you buying the product or not?”

  “Yes, I’m buying the entire load, but my girl’s in trouble, so you need to fucking wait two seconds,” Danny’s voice came through the phone unmuffled. “Cariño, Estas segura?

  She knew that meant are you safe. “I think so, I don’t know. I just found her note. She put it in my purse sometime today.”

  “Sit tight, I’ll send me hermano over,” he said.

  Annaka knew hermano was the Spanish word for brother. “No one local,” she said.

  “Chill cariño, I’ll send him over and I’ll call you when I’m done with business.” Then the call disconnected.

  Annaka stood without moving for several long seconds, thinking about the call. It was Danny’s voice, but it didn’t sound like him. He never talked that way. She didn’t know what was going on, but she knew not to call back. She turned all the lights off. She grabbed her backpack and her purse, and she sat on the floor with her back against the bed on its far side, clutching her phone.

  Mother stowed the phone back in his pocket. He glanced at Sherman, who stood beside him. Then he looked Bandile in his bloodshot, bulging eyes. This guy was using his own product. He hadn’t seemed this edgy when Mother and the Birdman first hooked up with him a few days prior.

  “You got the money?” Bandile asked.

  “Not on me. Do you think I’m fucking stupid?” Mother replied. “It’s nearby. You got rest the product?”

  Prince Bandile’s lips pulled into a grin. “Not on me, do you think I’m fucking stupid?” Then he laughed.

  “I can take double the amount we discussed if you have it. If not, I can find another supplier,” Mother bated.

  “Double?” He asked. “No, I don’t have that.”

  “How about your boss? Can I get it from him? I’ll pay you a finder’s fee for the introduction.”

  Bandile studied the two men in front of him at length. “I want to see the money first.”

  “En chinga, cabrón,” Mother said, Spanish for go fuck yourself dumbass. He said it with the proper attitude. “I show the money only to the man who has the volume of chiva I’m looking for, and that obviously isn’t you.”

  November

  Hearing the phone call with Annaka through Mother’s comms, Lambchop immediately told Sloan, who stood beside him, that he was going to switch channels. He paced away from the street corner they were on, moving farther away from the neon sign graveyard. He spoke directly to Ops. “I know you heard that, Xena. Annaka is in trouble. We need to get her some support.”

  “Roger that, Lambchop. We’ve got it recorded, notifying Big Bear now.”

  “And Remi, that’s Dr. Remington Ipsen,” Lambchop clarified.

  “Where is Annaka now?”

  “She checked into the Anchor Point Lodge, same place we stayed when we were on site,” Lambchop said.

  Two minutes later, Shepherd came on the line. “I just reviewed the call. I’m connecting with DC now to get assets to her location.”

  “But you heard her, no one
local. What other assets are in the area?”

  “I’m checking now,” Shepherd’s voice said. Lambchop waited a good five minutes before Shepherd’s voice came back on comms. “Besides the FBI in Anchorage, there is a detachment of Rangers training at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. They are just over an hour away via Blackhawk. They’re being scrambled now. We’ll send them in to get Annaka and see about doing a takedown at Dr. Ipsen’s home address.”

  “We’ve got to let Annaka know they’re on the way,” Lambchop said.

  “I captured her number from the call into Mother’s phone,” Garcia’s voice said, also on comms.

  “She probably won’t pick up a call from a number she doesn’t recognize,” Lambchop said.

  “I’ll manipulate the caller I.D. so she thinks it’s Mother calling. Will she recognize your voice, Lambchop?” Garcia asked.

  “She should.”

  “I’ll initiate the call, but you talk with her first and then drop off once she understands it’s you. I’ll stay on the line with her and fill her in. You have to get back to covering Mother and the Birdman.”

  “Roger that,” Lambchop said.

  In her hand, her muted phone vibrated. Annaka checked the display. It was Danny, returning the call. “Danny?” She answered, her voice just above a whisper.

  “Annaka, this is Lambchop. Do you remember me?”

  “Yes,” she replied, a bit confused.

  “Mother is still tied up, but we didn’t want to leave you hanging. On the phone with us is one of our team members. His name is Garcia. He’s going to stay on the line with you. You can trust him.”

  “I’m sure it wasn’t a gas leak. Someone tried to kill me at my house. What if they come here to finish the job?”

  “We’re going to get you help,” Lambchop said.

  “Remi said in her note, no one local.”

  “We know. I need you to have faith in us,” Lambchop said. He could hear in her voice that she was panicked.

  “I do,” she confirmed. “But I’m here alone and I’m afraid.”

  “Do you believe in God, Annaka?” Lambchop asked.

  “Yes,” she said, surprised by his question.

  “Then you are not alone there. God is with you. You need to have faith in God. I have to go, but first, will you pray with me, Annaka?” He asked. He didn’t wait for an answer. “Dear God, our Father, watch over Annaka until we can get her help. Wrap her in your protection and in your love. Bring her peace. We ask this in the name of your son, Jesus, amen.”

  “Thank you,” Annaka murmured. It had been years since she’d prayed out loud with anyone, years since she’d been to church.

  “I have to get back to the operation. Do you have any questions?” Lambchop asked.

  Yes, she had many. “No.” Was her clipped reply.

  “Annaka, this is Garcia. Where exactly are you?”

  “In my motel room. After I got off the phone with Danny, I turned the lights out and I’m sitting on the floor behind the bed.”

  “Very good. I was going to suggest something like that. Your room door is locked?”

  “Yes, including the night lock, and I shoved a chair against the door and the handle.”

  Garcia’s lips tipped into a grin. “Okay, that’s good. I’m going to stay on the line with you. There is a chopper coming from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson with a unit of Rangers. They’re going to get you and then go on to Remington Ipsen’s house and conduct a mission to liberate her family if they are being held there.”

  “How long till they get here?”

  “They are just over an hour out,” Garcia said.

  An hour? Annaka knew anything could happen in an hour. She silently prayed no one would come to the motel to get her in that hour. Surely, whoever had rigged her house to blow up knew she was alive. They’d know she was here too. Her car was outside in plain sight.

  “Annaka, are you there?” Garcia asked.

  “I’m sorry. Yes, I’m here. An hour is a long time.”

  “Yes, but the bad guys won’t know that help will be there in an hour. They’ll think they have all night.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  “Yes,” Garcia replied confidently. “And I’ll stay on the line with you until the Rangers get there. If anyone does come before then, shout out descriptions of them to me. You got that?”

  “Yes,” she said, getting more nervous.

  “It’s early yet though. If I were planning an operation to come kidnap or kill you, it wouldn’t be until after midnight. I think time is on your side.”

  “Operation,” she repeated. “Lambchop said that word too.”

  “Yes, trust me, we know what we’re doing. I show a listing for Dr. Remington Ipsen on Hill Road in Homer. Is that her place?”

  Annaka heard keys clicking on a keyboard. “Yes, that’s where she lives.”

  “It looks remote, wooded.”

  “It is. The road and the end of her driveway is clear of trees if you need somewhere for the helicopter to land.”

  Garcia’s lips pulled into a broader smile. “Only when the rescue is over. The team will hot-rope in.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “The chopper won’t land. They’ll rappel down ropes. And the chopper is modified, very quiet. They won’t hear it until it’s on top of them.”

  “Will I hear it when it gets here?” She asked.

  “It depends where they set down and the weather there, which way the wind is blowing. I will tell you when they are right outside your door. What’s your room number?”

  “One-fifteen. My car is parked right in front of my door. I’m not in the two-story lodge. My room is in the section that the doors face the parking lot.”

  This information disturbed Garcia. She was less safe there. “I’m sure you’ll be fine until they reach you. Remember, I’d come get you after midnight when the area is good and quiet if I were the bad guys.”

  “I hope you’re right, hope they think the same way.”

  He clicked on satellite footage and saw the motel. At least another set of rooms ran behind hers. There was one way in, one way out of her room, the front door. There was a parking lot all the way around the motel and a field behind it. The chopper could set down in either location. “Your room, it faces the diner?”

  “Yes. I can see the lights from it coming through the closed blinds on the window.”

  “Good, that’s another plus. It’s early yet, still dinner time. They aren’t coming anywhere near you while that diner has customers.”

  “I hope not,” she said.

  “Did you get anything to eat tonight?” Garcia asked.

  “Yes.”

  “What did you have to eat?” Garcia asked, trying to make small talk to get her to relax. He could hear the stress in her voice.

  “What does it matter?”

  Garcia chuckled. “I brought in leftover skirt steak fajitas my wife made last night for dinner, still haven’t taken a break to eat.”

  “Are you in the Chicago area?”

  “Yes, why do you ask?”

  “It’s late there.”

  “Yes, I was supporting the operation, it’s been ongoing for a few hours. Now, I’ve got you. I’ll eat after you’re safe.”

  “You’re going to stay on the phone with me until the Rangers arrive?” She knew he said he would. She was just making sure.

  “Yes. Is your battery sufficiently charged?”

  “Yes, it should be,” Annaka answered.

  “I want you to read me the note that you found in your bag, exactly as it’s written,” Garcia prompted.

  She recited it to him. She didn’t need to read the note, the words were indelibly etched on her brain. She heard computer keys clicking again.

  “Tell me everything you know about Remington Ipsen’s family and her house,” Garcia prompted next.

  She continued to hear typing on keys as she told him about Remi, her husband, and two grade school
-aged children. Then she described the layout of the two-story house, going into great detail at his prompting.

  “You’re doing great, Annaka,” Garcia said. “I’m relaying all this information to the team that is coming, along with pictures of both Remington and her husband Benjamin. The better the intel they have, the greater the chance for a successful operation.”

  Annaka’s brain was overloaded. Her thoughts raced.